The point of the word is to give more context, so it’s clearer what’s being described. Same with the word user, you could say “Steam has 40m humans”, or you could say users.
Asfalttikyntaja@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
Did nobody think that the “consumer” is capitalism way of speaking about humans?
I’m not a consumer, I’m a free man!
Redex68@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Funnily enough, there is a case as to why the word consumer so often pops up, especially in capitalist context. The first documented case of consumer was in the Middle Ages, in a French dictionary. It derives its meaning from Consumare, Latin for “use” but in a destructive manner. For example, you’d consume a candle or an apple because you’ll use them and then they’re gone, they’re broken/destroyed. Being a consumer back then was a bad thing because people were so ridiculously poor and naturally could not waste. Now contrast that with the same French dictionary which defines customer as a person who routinely buys from the same merchant.
There’s a reason why this is being used so prevalently today. Customer implies agency, a process of thinking and making a choice, while a consumer just consumes. Let me give an example. “We need to check how the consumers will receive it.” it implies zero agency on the “consumers” part. Like feeding a toddler. But if I just say “We need to check how the customers will receive it”, it again implies agency that we have to do well to satisfy the needs of the customer and not just try feeding a toddler by using dirty tricks.
LemmyThinkAboutIt@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
The new Bath and Body Works CEO has implemented calling their customers “consumers” now instead. In things that come down from corporate, customer has been replaced with consumer. It’s extremely off putting.
Fedizen@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
So you’re saying the point of using “consumer” over “customer” is to dehumanize people so businesses don’t feel bad bilking them. Sounds right.v